


The Dark in the Light

by Crystalshard



Category: Tron (1982), Tron - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-10
Updated: 2014-03-10
Packaged: 2018-01-15 07:40:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1296826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crystalshard/pseuds/Crystalshard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She is, above all, a scientist. Now, however, she must sacrifice her principles in favor of her ethics. Written for the Tron Fanworks Month, category 'Angst', subcategory 'Headacanon'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dark in the Light

She was a scientist, above all. She was dedicated to fact, to discovery, to pushing the boundaries of what was possible. Growing up watching Star Trek, she'd promised herself that one day, their technology would be real. Perhaps she couldn't make communicators, or tricorders, but she could start on replicating their transporters. One day, she'd hoped, anything could be sent to the other side of the world as packets of data in a transportation revolution. No more cargo ships, no more hundred-truck trains. She could see that future, burning so clearly that she was sometimes startled by the fact that she wasn't living it. 

"You got everything packed up?" 

Flynn's voice pulled Lora out of her reverie, and she glanced down at the roll of packing tape in her hands. The open cardboard box in front of her seemed faintly reproachful. "Just a moment. This is the last box." Her hands moved automatically, closing the flaps over the glint of metal and sealing the gap with the tape. 

"Thanks for this, Lora," Flynn said, the grin on his face automatic, as if he were already a thousand miles away. 

She shrugged. "You know, I figured that after you got your evidence, we wouldn't be sneaking around ENCOM in the middle of the night any more. Guess I was wrong." 

Flynn clapped a dramatic hand to his forehead, the old sparkle back in his eyes for a moment. "Wait, let me get a pen. I need to mark this on a calendar. Lora Admits She's Wrong." 

Lora couldn't help but snicker. "Enjoy it while it lasts. Come on, we've got to get this out of here. Alan won't be able to stall much longer while he makes those updates to Tron." 

Flynn, in the middle of picking up the box, hesitated. "You left the original Yori in the ENCOM system, right?" 

Lora fitted her hands under the box and gave it a gentle boost. "Sure, though I still don't know why. She's not really of much use without the laser system." 

The grin this time was genuine. "Thanks, man. Woman. Whatever." 

Rolling her eyes, Lora chivvied Flynn out of the former laser lab and down the stairs to the underground employee parking lot. They'd run this same course several times over the past week, slowly removing bits of the laser and the computers that ran it. 

Tonight was the last possible night for removing the technology that she'd hoped would be so groundbreaking. The laser system was meant to improve lives. 

Not to take them. 

Together, Lora and Flynn eased the last box into the back of her van as Roy, in the driver's seat, stuck his head out of the window. "That the last one?" 

"That's it," Lora confirmed, closing the rear doors. "Flynn, you're sure they'll never find this system?" 

Flynn gave her a lazy salute, then swung into the passenger seat. "Promise." 

Lora nodded tightly. "I want my van to be at Alan's place by dawn, okay?" 

"Oh, a sleepover? Am I invited?" Flynn teased. 

Lora pointedly shut the passenger door on her boss and friend. "Try that architect instead. I have it on good authority that she thinks you're cute. If you're quick, she might not notice your bad habits until it's too late." 

"You wound me," Flynn tossed back, the words nearly swallowed by the sound of the engine starting. 

" _Go,_ " was all Lora said. 

With the van gone, she made her way over to Alan's car on the other side of the lot. He was already sitting in the driver's seat, his hands a little too tight on the wheel, trying to be surreptitious about the way he was glancing around for signs that they'd been discovered. 

Sliding into the passenger seat, he started up the engine without a word. The silence lingered until they were halfway to his house and Alan's fingers were in danger of leaving a permanent imprint on the steering wheel. 

"Well?" he asked, trying and failing to hide the tension that was vibrating out of him. 

"It's gone," Lora said simply, not missing the way that his shoulders descended by about two inches. "That was the last of it. I don't know where he's taking it, and I didn't ask." 

"Probably safest that way," Alan agreed, his fingers no longer white-knuckled. "When I first heard that General Wessler was coming for a second visit to see the progress you'd made, I got worried." 

A slight understatement there, perhaps, but that was Alan all over. "I know. After that report he made the first time . . . well." 

"We couldn't let your laser get into the hands of the military," Alan agreed. "Who knows what they'd use it for? Battlefield disintegrations?" 

Lora shuddered. "Don't remind me. Well, he won't have any progress to see. Every test report we've had since then has been a failure." 

"All over my best suit, too," Alan added dryly, which was the opposite of what said suit had been when a returning orange had exploded on being un-digitized. 

"Sorry. That was the first one. I hadn't quite got the parameters right to make sure it failed." 

Yori had apparently objected strongly to the deliberate failures . . . almost as strongly as Lora had, truth be told. She was a scientist, and her first duty was supposed to be to discovery. 

Perhaps, though, the world wasn't quite ready for it yet.


End file.
